


In Which a Mysterious Man in a Cottage Seems to Solve Problems

by GretchenSinister



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Multi, Pitch is the new one this time, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-24
Updated: 2020-02-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:00:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22872871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister
Summary: Original Prompt: "Takes place after the movie. (maybe a month or so after Pitch’s defeat) Brave parody, spin-off.Jack can’t stop thinking about Pitch’s words back in Antarctica, and genuinely feels a spark of guilt for not hearing him out a bit more. He only wanted to be believe din after all,t he same thing Jack wanted.Jack goes out one night, but the wind take shim to a strange cottage int he woods housing a witch.After some questionable negotiating(?) Jack receives a potion (or some other edible item) from the witch that will change Pitch’s fate. He’s just SO sure things will work out and Pitch and he and the other Guardians could maybe get along and have a mutual balance now. Pitch takes the potion (though rather suspicious, but he’s too mentally exhausted to exercise caution), but it does not do what Jack expects...[cut for length]"Basically aftermath of the events described in the prompt: Starts with Pitch just returned to his human form, continues through figuring out Pitch’s place in the world, ends with Pitch being very oblivious and Bunny knowing exactly what’s going on and being annoyed by it.
Relationships: Everyone/Everyone
Kudos: 5
Collections: RotG Polyamory Fics





	In Which a Mysterious Man in a Cottage Seems to Solve Problems

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr on 2/25/2014.
> 
> Here's the rest of the prompt: "Pitch is changed into a large black horse much like a fearling after a painful changing processes. Flabbergasted, and if not a bit irked, Jack now only has three nights to change Pitch back, or the nightmare king will become a real horse and loose all sense of who he once was. (Example: kiss, an emotion must be felt, Pitch has to do something, etc) (filler is to decide what Jack must do to change Pitch back.)Sad to say Pithc is NOT pleased and not about to hide his anger at Jack, even if the frost spirit cannot understand his horse-speak. Jack has to do all this, WITHOUT the other guardians finding out. Too bad things get messy later when one of them finds out (filler may choose who)
> 
> Can be end up as a romance, friendship/kinship, father/son feel for them, or other theme. If you choose romance, NO NON-CON PLEASE. Go nuts."

Pitch shivered in the dewy grass on top of the hill. His fetal curve mimicked the narrow waning crescent of the moon overhead.  
  
“Pitch?” Jack breathed.  
  
Pitch coughed, and shadow seeped from the corner of his mouth. “More or less,” he croaked.  
  
“ _More_ or _less_?” Bunny asked. His voice rang clear in the cool night air.  
  
“ _More_ , you insufferable—” Pitch fell into another coughing fit.  
  
Sandy stepped forward and pulled a blanket over Pitch. He lightly touched Pitch’s temple before backing off again and nodded to the others.  
  
“That is good, Pitch. Very good.” North knelt beside Pitch, offering his arm to him. Pitch hesitated for a long, long moment, but North didn’t move. He reluctantly placed his hand on his arm and let North pull him up. He moved to let go as soon as he was standing, but his knees buckled as soon as he began to remove his hand.   
  
“Pitch, do you remember what happened?” Tooth asked.  
  
“The same thing that _always_ happens, I expect,” he said. “I’m only surprised you’re still here. I…” his eyes fixed on Jack. “You,” he said. “It had something to do with you, just you.”  
  
“Jack, I think it’s time you explained,” Tooth said.  
  
“Here?” Jack’s voice remained soft.  
  
“Pitch, would you be willing to be taken to the Pole?”  
  
“You’re really worried about me.” Pitch narrowed his eyes. “Yes, I’ll go to the Pole. It’s not like I have any shame after so many millennia. I’ll take what care I can get.”  
  


* * *

  
  
“That was the problem,” Jack said. All of them sat before a roaring fire. Pitch huddled in several blankets, a mug of broth in his hands. “After Easter, I felt sorry for you, Pitch. I started looking for a way to helpful, and I somehow ended up at this little cottage. A man was there, and he seemed harmless. I told him what I wanted and he gave me this little loaf of bread. He told me it would help you find your place in the world. I didn’t tell you that when I went to your lair. I just offered it as food, and you took it. And then…you turned into a huge black horse.”  
  
“That would explain a few of the memories coming back,” Pitch said.  
  
“Um, and you weren’t happy about it,” Jack continued. “You…ran away and started causing a lot of panic, at random. Everyone else noticed. I had to explain, and none of them were happy about it. The Man in the Moon told us then that we had to figure out what your place was meant to be, believe it—all of us—and tell you. Before he waned to new. Otherwise you’d be stuck as a horse, and given the panic, that would have been really bad. Can someone else go on?”  
  
“We’ve spent the last three days chasing you while simultaneously discussing what your place in the world might be,” Tooth said.  
  
Pitch frowned into his mug. “Obviously it worked.”  
  
“Yes, and what we figured out was—”  
  
“Let me finish my broth first,” Pitch said. He sipped slowly, drawing out the moments of warmth, rest, and uncertainty. He would prefer to wait here long enough to make a full recovery before finding out what thankless task he was destined for.  
  
Unfortunately, that was not to be. Sandy tapped him on the hand to get his attention as soon as he finished, and signed to him what they had figured out.  
  
_You’re the one who teaches the children how to be safe even after they grow away from us. Only fears of real things help. But not likely to have believers that way._  
  
“Well, that’s that. I suppose I better go get started, wouldn’t want you to have to force me, can’t think of what you’d do if I slack on the job now that you know I have one, I guess not being beaten must be its own reward, yes, it’s a fine improvement already.” Pitch put down his mug on a table and made to throw off the blankets.  
  
“Pitch, wait,” North said. “You are agreeing so easily? We did not expect you to do so.”  
  
“I—I’m so _tired_ ,” Pitch said. “I don’t want this task. I—there’s no point pretending. I’m too weak to do it now but since the Moon seems to say so, you’ll punish me for failure but probably less than for disobedience and I just—I’m tired. At least when I did wrong I got to rest. But now I have to be some kind of unseen…sub-Guardian? That’s pathetic. I’ve been chosen to be pathetic. You _all_ know what it’s like to be without power, how am I supposed to…I can’t do this. I can’t. I’m the Boogeyman,” he finished, hating how small his voice had become.  
  
“Fear must be very difficult center,” North remarked. “If you had let Sandy continue, he would have been able to tell you the rest. You think presents have anything to do with fostering wonder? No, but helps with believers, plus I like to give the gifts. Same with Bunny, and Tooth. Sandy does not have to shape dreams, and Jack does not have to actually join children in play. Your duty does not describe the only things you may do.”  
  
Bunny suddenly straightened up as if startled by something. “Calm down, Pitch. We’re still sending Sandy out with you for a while to keep an eye on you. If you try to hurt the kids, you’ll be in for the world of hurt you imagined.”  
  
“But I’ve talked to everyone about how some fear can be fun,” Jack said, much perkier than he had been. “So, you know, there’s a lot of room, I think, for you in that kind of world.”  
  
“Why couldn’t you have figured this out without turning me into a horse?” Pitch asked.   
  
“This is something we are going to look into,” North assured him. “May be also related to Jack’s previous situation.”  
  
Pitch rolled his eyes. “So Sandy—draw the short straw, did you?” Sandy simply winked at him. Pitch quickly looked away. “Ah—well, North, you said I have a center, does that mean I’m a full Guardian?”   
  
The look between Tooth and North he couldn’t interpret. Jack’s raised eyebrows were obviously simple disbelief. Looking at North for some further sign, Pitch missed Sandy and Bunny’s look to each other, and Bunny putting his hand over his face in response to some quirk of Sandy’s eyebrows.  
  
“Not yet,” North said. “But…hmm. Probably eventually. But now, maybe you should rest for a little while? You are still not looking so healthy.”  
  
“He always looks like that,” Bunny said, just as Pitch replied, “Yes, and I want eight quilts and a hot chocolate.”  
  
North nodded and Bunny scoffed.  
  
“What!” North said. “No one else is ever accepting my invitations! What is that, Sandy? Oh, yes, I suppose since there will be a bed you must go too to make sure he does not escape.”  
  
Pitch whirled to face Sandy, but he only looked serene as ever. Bunny, on the other hand, wore the kind of expression one wears when, after a fruitless argument, one’s friend announces they are still determined to play with lit fireworks. “Relax, I can’t do anything to him anymore,” Pitch said to Bunny. “More likely he’ll make me sleep for a week.”  
  
“Yeah, most likely,” Bunny mutters. “You know that’d be the best idea, Sandy. You know. Give him some time to get used to the idea of having a purpose and maybe, _only maybe_ being a Guardian someday. Which, you know, he doesn’t fully understand yet.” He gave Sandy a significant look.  
  
“Will I get to act like a total weirdo, too, when I’m a Guardian?” Pitch asked. “Can you solve your mysterious problems while I’m asleep?”  
  
“Only if you’re asleep,” Bunny said.  
  
“Why wouldn’t I be?” He looked down at Sandy, who shrugged. “See, Bunny. He knows what he’s about.”  
  
“That’s not what I’m disputing,” Bunny said.  
  
Sandy made a conciliatory gesture. _Relax. I know there’re many nights ahead of us._

**Author's Note:**

> Tags and Comments from Tumblr:
> 
> #Sandy u little shit#Pitch bb you are like a sad nervous brick#All the Guardians are married to each other btw#OT5#but it's going to be#OT6#really soon#I think the man in the cottage was Tom Bombadil#yeah let's go with that#I mean why not really#ecuas yrrebnarc#that's not a secret message#it's just cranberry sauce backwards#that's a Beatles reference#why is it here?#because Tom Bombadil that's why
> 
> bowlingforgerbils said: Clueless Pitch. :D
> 
> whentheoceanmetsky reblogged this from gretchensinister and added:  
> please just bury me in all the OT+ please please #WRITE OT+ FOREVER GRETCHEN #I LOVE EVERYTHING #PITCH LOOK AT U #SO NAIVE #SO UNAWARE #BUNNY TOO #HE'S GONNA FUCK THAT ONE DAY AND HE DOESN'T EVEN KNOW #POOR GUY #(LUCKY GUY?) #IM SORRY I THINK A LOT ABOUT BUNNY/PITCH IN THE OT6 DYNAMIC A LOT #JUST EVERYONE'S SHARED #'DID HE JUST?' #'DOES HE EVEN...?' #'WELL I MEAN ITS NOT LIKE I HAVEN'T /THOUGHT/ OF IT' #SANDY HAS BEEN WAITING FOR THIS MOMENT FOR A LONG TIME #GIT IT SANDY #I LOVE JACK IN EVERY OT+ DYNAMIC


End file.
